Kamala Harris` Quotes – A Perfect Guide

We created a comprehensive guide to the most important Kamala Harris quotes. To give you quick access we created a table of content to help you find what you are looking for. 

Kamala Harris` Quotes On Immigration

“Imperfect though we may be, I believe we are a great country,” Harris—the daughter of two immigrant parents—said during her first speech on the Senate floor. “And part of what makes us great are our democratic institutions that protect our fundamental ideals—freedom of religion and the rule of law, protection from discrimination based on national origin, freedom of the press, and a 200 year history as a nation built by immigrants.” first speech on the senate floor

“I have personally prosecuted everything from low-level offenses to homicides. I know what a crime looks like. I will tell you: an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal”. In a 2017 Senate address

“For as long as ours has been a nation of immigrants, we have been a nation that fears immigrants. Fear of the other is woven into the fabric of our American culture, and unscrupulous people in power have exploited that fear in pursuit of political advantage.” In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Harris`Quotes On Breaking Barriers

“My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last,'” Harris said during a lecture at Spelman College, recalling the motto that’s guided her life. “That’s why breaking those barriers is worth it. As much as anything else, it is also to create that path for those who will come after us.”

On Inspiring Future Generations

“To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way,”  during her Vice President-elect Acceptance Speech.

“When I look at young girls and boys, and they look at me, they see themselves, and what they can be. That’s the weight that I carry, and the joy of the weight.” on Instagram

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Voting

“To everyone keeping up the fight, you are doing something,” Harris said in her first speech as the Democratic nominee for vice president. “You are the reason I know we are going to bring our country closer to realizing its great promise. But to do it, we’ll need to work, organize, and vote like never before, because we need more than a victory on November 3rd. We need a mandate that proves that the past few years do not represent who we are or who we aspire to be.”

“Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power. Don’t let anyone take away your power. Now is the time to stand up. Now is the time to speak out. And now is the time to VOTE.” on Instagram

“Here’s the thing. Everybody has to remember this and ask this question of yourself. Why don’t they want us to vote? Why are they creating obstacles to us voting? Well, the answer is, when we vote, things change.” Interview with The 19th | August 14, 2020

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Leadership

“Anyone who claims to be a leader must speak like a leader. That means speaking with integrity and truth,” on Instagram 

“You never have to ask anyone permission to lead. I want you to remember that, OK? When you want to lead, you lead.” Speaking to two young women outside her rally in Iowa

On Democracy

“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way.” in her vice presidential victory speech

“Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including the black women who are often too often overlooked, but so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy.” Medium

“Part of what makes us great are our democratic institutions that protect our fundamental ideals—freedom of religion and the rule of law, protection from discrimination based on national origin, freedom of the press, and a 200-year history as a nation built by immigrants.”

“Our democracy is at its strongest and most powerful when everyone participates.” MSNBC

Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work … We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust”. In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Kamala Harris` Quotes On Fighting Injustice

“At every step of the way, I’ve been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom: Kamala Harris, For the People,” she said during her vice-presidential acceptance speech at the DNC. “I’ve fought for children, and survivors of sexual assault. I’ve fought against transnational gangs. I took on the biggest banks, and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one.”

“Because of the smartphone, America and the world are seeing in vivid detail the brutality that communities have known for generations. You can’t deny. You can’t look away. It’s there. I do believe people are seeing the injustice of it all and are prepared to take action in a way that we’ve not seen before. And that gives me hope.” The New York Times

“Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, these issues are real in our country.  And they are born out of hate, hate which over the last couple of years has received new fuel. And we need to call it out when we see it.  And I feel very strongly that all of us must speak up when we see it and that no one who is the subject of that hate should ever be made to fight alone.” MSNBC

Harris` Quotes On Mentoring

“I mentor a lot of people. I will say to them that you will often find that you are the only one who looks like you in the room, be it around the conference table or in a meeting or wherever you are. But the thing to remember is you are never in that room alone. We are all in that room with you, expecting that you will use your voice, and use it with pride and use it in a way that represents all of those who are in the room with you but not physically there. It is part of the way that I approach my work and always have.” The New York Times

On Trust

The nature of a relationship of trust is that it is a reciprocal relationship. You give and you receive trust. And one of the most important ingredients in trust is truth, is truth. But what we also know is that speaking the truth can often make people quite uncomfortable. In a Harris’ Spelman College lecture

Quotes On Hope

“Throughout all of the recent events and the emotional roller coaster our country has been on, we cannot lose hope. And in order to have hope, one must first speak truth”. In a 2020 op-ed for Cosmopolitan

Kamala Harris `Quotes On Improving Safety

“It is status quo thinking to believe that putting more police on the streets creates more safety. That’s wrong. It’s just wrong. You know what creates more safety? Funding public schools, affordable housing, increased homeownership, job skill development, jobs, access to capital for those who want to start small businesses, or who are running small businesses in communities. in the NYT

“Like it or not, most people prioritize their own safety over the education of someone else’s child. I wanted to make them see that if we didn’t prioritize education now, it would be a public safety matter later.”In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

On Being a “First”

“I hope that by being a ‘first,’ I inspire young people to pursue their dreams,” Harris told Harper’s Bazaar. “The number of times I’ve heard the word ‘no’—or that something can’t be done—in my lifetime is too many to count. I’m honored to be considered a “first,” but I always think about the people who came before and paved the way for me to get where I am today. From Rosa Parks to Shirley Chisholm to Congressman John Lewis, I stand on the shoulders of so many great men and women before me.” In Harper`s Bazaar

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Race and Racism

“Let’s speak the truth: People are protesting because Black people have been treated as less than human in America. Because our country has never fully addressed the systemic racism that has plagued our country since its earliest days. It is the duty of every American to fix. No longer can some wait on the sidelines, hoping for incremental change. In times like this, silence is complicity,” in an op-ed for Cosmopolitan.

“It will take each of us to confront the injustices that continue to perpetuate a broken system that has taken countless Black Americans’ lives. It will take people of every race, creed, and gender identity to speak up and to act. Now is the time to have those uncomfortable conversations about racism with family, friends, and neighbors. It’s time to have honest discussions about our country’s dark history of discrimination and confront the fact that structural racism lives on in our policies and everyday life. And it’s time for all of us — not just some — to speak out against racism. in an essay for cosmopolitan

Harris` Quotes On Her Parents’ Influence

“My parents would bring me to protests strapped tightly in my stroller, and my mother, Shyamala, raised my sister, Maya, and me to believe that it was up to us and every generation of Americans to keep on marching, She’d tell us ‘Don’t sit around and complain about things; do something.’ So I did something. I devoted my life to the Black Maternal Health Crisis. During her first campaign appearance as the Democratic nominee for vice president

Quotes On the Black Maternal Health Crisis

“Every day, pregnant women walk into their doctor’s office for checkups, advice and treatment; but that experience is very different for Black women,” she wrote in a column for Essence. Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes and twice as likely to suffer from life-threatening pregnancy-related complications.”  In an essay for Essence

“We can’t let up the fight to address maternal mortality in America — especially right now. When we address both the systematic disparities and implicit bias in both our society and our health care system, we can get to the point where being Black and pregnant is full of joy and free from fear of preventable death.” In an essay for Essence

On Abortion

“We cannot tolerate a perspective that is about going backward and not understanding women have agency. Women have value. Women have authority to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies.”

“And let me just tell you, as president, I will fight every day for a woman to make the decision for herself, which means I will respect any woman who decides that is not the decision she wants to make, that she wants to make a different decision, but we have got to respect women in this country.” MSNBC 

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Mental Health

“Mental health care, the way I think about it is that we have to understand health care. You can’t just think that the body starts from the neck down. We also need health care for the neck up.” In an interview with Selena Gomez

On The Criminal Justice System

“The criminal justice system punishes people for their poverty.” In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Harris`Quotes On Making Tough Decisions

“I’m a career prosecutor,” Harris told the New York Times. “I have been trained, and my experience over decades, is to make decisions after a review of the evidence and the facts. And not to jump up with grand gestures before I’ve done that. Some might interpret that as being cautious. I would tell you that’s just responsible.” In The New York Times 

“Getting smart on crime does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes. Being smart on crime means using the time and resources we now spend on offenders more productively to reduce their odds of re-offending.” Interview with CBS News 

Kamala Harris` Quotes On Patriotism

“A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.”  In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey 

“We are a nation that, at its best, loves, protects, and helps our fellow Americans.”  In Medium

“Let’s fight with conviction. Let’s fight with hope. Let’s fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other—to the America we know is possible, the America we love.” In her Vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Advising Young Women

“What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters,” “You’re going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences you’ve had. But you remember that when you are in those rooms, you are not alone. We are all in that room with you applauding you. Cheering your voice. And just so proud of you. So you use that voice and be strong.” In Marie Claire 

“More women should run for office, and more women are running for office, and this is so exciting.” Marie Claire

“Our mother was all of 5 feet tall, but if you ever met her, you would have thought she was 7 feet tall, and, you know, she was the kind of parent who would tell you, you know, you don`t let anyone tell you who you are, you tell them who you are.”  MSNBC

On Attending a HBCU

“I became an adult at Howard University,” Harris told the Washington Post. “Howard very directly influenced and reinforced—equally important—my sense of being and meaning and reasons for being.”

Harris` On Being ‘Momala’

“I’ve had a lot of titles over my career, and certainly ‘vice president’ will be great. But ‘Momala’ will always be the one that means the most,” in a speech after being named the Democratic nominee for vice president

Kamala Harris` Quotes On Building a Better Future

“Our souls will be well when people know that they can feed their children,” Harris said in her 2020 TIME Person of the Year interview. “When they know that they can have a job that allows them to not only pay the bills by the end of the month, but to have a sense of dignity, in terms of knowing they’re providing for their families and creating a pathway for their future possibilities.”

On America’s Racial Reckoning

“But now, because of the smartphone, America and the world are seeing in vivid detail the brutality that communities have known for generations, You can’t deny. You can’t look away. It’s there. I do believe people are seeing the injustice of it all and are prepared to take action in a way that we’ve not seen before. And that gives me hope.” In The NEW York Times 

On Positive Thinking

“Optimism is the fuel driving every fight I’ve been in,” In an Elle interview.

Kamala Harris` Quotes On Helping Others

“From helping seniors navigate the Medicare system to helping veterans get the benefits they are owed, from securing funding for families to rebuild after the wildfires to working to get small businesses what they need to stay afloat — my team heard you, we saw you, and we fought for you,” in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle

Quotes On Gun Control

“Upon being elected, I will give the United States Congress a hundred days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. If they fail to do it, then I will take executive action.” CNN Town Hall | April 22, 2019

Harris` Quotes On Medicare For All

“We will allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans as a part of this system that adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits. This would function similar to how private Medicare plans work today, which cover about a third of Medicare seniors, and operate within the Medicare system. Medicare will set the rules of the road for these plans, including price and quality, and private insurance companies will play by those rules, not the other way around. This preserves the options that seniors have today and expands options to all Americans, while also telling insurance companies they don’t run the show.” in Medium

Vice President Harris`On  Pharma Companies

“The biggest barrier to access to healthcare in our country is cost. And we’ve got the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies that keep jacking up premiums and copays and prescription drugs and the cost of prescription drugs, and I’ve taken them on. When I was attorney general, I took on the pharmaceutical companies. I delivered over $200 million for the people of my state because of their practices that were about fraudulent practices. And we need somebody in the United States of America who is at the top level of leadership who understands that there are people every day in our country suffering because they don’t have access to health care.” MSNBC 

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Oil And Gas Companies 

“When you take away that money because you take them to court and sue them, as I have done, it’s extraordinary how they will change behaviors. They have to be held accountable. Maybe this is the prosecutor in me. They have to be held accountable. These are bad behaviors. They are causing harm and death in communities. And there has been no accountability. Certainly not by this administration, nor, and I hate to say it so generally, by the Republicans in Congress.” CNN Town Hall on Climate Change

On Banning Plastic Straws

“I think we should [ban them], yes. I mean, look, I’m going to be honest: It’s really difficult to drink out of a paper straw—like, if you don’t gulp it down immediately, it starts to bend, and then the little thing catches it. So, we gotta kind of perfect that one a little bit more.” CNN 

On Student Loan Debt

“As president, I’ll establish a student loan debt forgiveness program for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in disadvantaged communities. […] We have an opportunity gap in our country, and one thing we need to do is support Black entrepreneurs. I have a plan to do that on multiple fronts. Student loan relief for Pell Grant recipients is just one component of our plan to reduce the opportunity gap for Black entrepreneurs—along with $12 billion in direct capital. We can ensure Black entrepreneurs have a real shot at starting small businesses.” On Twitter

Kamala Harris`Quotes On Medicare For All

“We will allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans as a part of this system that adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits. This would function similar to how private Medicare plans work today, which cover about a third of Medicare seniors, and operate within the Medicare system. Medicare will set the rules of the road for these plans, including price and quality, and private insurance companies will play by those rules, not the other way around. This preserves the options that seniors have today and expands options to all Americans, while also telling insurance companies they don’t run the show.”  On Medium 

On Values

“We come from different backgrounds — but we were raised, with the same values. Hard work. Honesty. Decency. A belief that we all have a responsibility to look out for one another.” — Medium

“We were founded on noble ideals.  The ideals that were present when we wrote the Constitution of the United States and all of its amendments and the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.  We said you are equal and should be treated that way.” — MSNBC

 “My mother taught us to put family first — the family you’re born into and the family you choose.” — Medium

“When you are introduced for the first time, the greeting is not ‘Pleased to meet you.’ The greeting is ‘I see you.’ I see you as a complete human being. At this moment in time, it is so critically important in our country for all people to be seen in their full selves, in a way that gives them the dignity they deserve.” In Elle

“The measure of you is so much bigger than you; it’s the impact you have, it’s what you do in service to others. And that’s how I was raised. I was raised that it is not about charity and benevolence, it’s about your duty. No one’s going to congratulate you for it—it’s what you’re supposed to do.” In Elle

On Taking Someone Else’s Perspective

“I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.” On Medium

 “I will tell you that probably over the last 10 years, my white friends would come up to me and say, ‘Kamala, what is going on all of a sudden with all this excessive force?’ And I would say to them, ‘You sound like a colonist.’ Because you’re seeing it for the first time, you think you’ve discovered it.” In the The New York Times

In the years to come, what matters most is that we see ourselves in one another’s struggles.” In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Short Kamala Harris` Quotes

“There is no vaccine for racism.” 

“My daily challenge to myself is to be part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle to come.” In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Let’s not throw up our hands when it’s time to roll up our sleeves. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“We The People have the power to build a better future.” In her vice presidential victory speech

“Imperfect though we may be, I believe we are a great country.”

“As much as anything else, it is also to create that path for those who will come after us.”

“I believe that any child going without an education is a crime.” In Democratic primary debate

“What brought my parents together was the civil rights movement of the 1960s.” 

Short Kamala Harris`Quotes on Women

“My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.” In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters,”

“Black women’s issues are everyone’s issues”.

“I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.”

If we don`t lift up women and families, everyone will fall short.

“My mother would say: don’t sit around and complain about things, do something”. So I did something”.

“Women have value. Women have authority to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies.” 

“We are fighting with you.” MSNBC

I’m really sick of having to explain my experiences with racism to people for them to understand that it exists.” — The New York Times

“It is not a niche to be black in America.” The Washington Post

“The American dream belongs to all of us.”

I’m opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.”

“At every step of the way, I’ve been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom: ‘Kamala Harris, For the People.’”

A Word from healthylifestyleflorida.com

Kamala Harris, who is widely known for her love for wearing pearls,  tailored, polished pant suits and converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

“My mother was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.” This quote describes Harris`confidence and

strength very well. Her mother also taught her to develop a healthy sense of self-care and humor.

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